2020 has been an extraordinary year from many different angles. Do not let 2020 set up 2021, 2023 and beyond.

This is your opportunity to set or re-set your long-term, your near-term and 2021

As Jim Collins wrote in his latest book Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0, he clearly articulates that you must have a vision for your long term, you must have a strategy, and you must be clear on your short-term tactics to achieve all that you want.  

What I love about Jim Collins' view about the long term, the near term, and the right now is that you must have a clear view and path to where you are going. And in my experience, you must not only know your path, you must also have a system to ensure that your long term, near term and right now stay alive. They must stay alive and stay aligned with your team.

It is one thing to write the plan down, it is a whole another thing to ensure the team stays aligned.

To drive your growth right through 2021 and beyond, we recommend the following steps:

1. Long Term Goal (10 - 30 years): If you don't have a long-term goal (a long-term view), I want you to “GUT IT OUT” with your team right now. As Jim Collins puts it, “This will become your guiding star.” Over time we want to get this right – but until then I just want you to draw line in the sand and agree with your leadership team on the 10 to 30 year goal. Please ensure this goal does not have any numbers in it. I know, a goal without numbers? Trust me on this one – please get the Leadership team to GUT OUT a 10 to 30 year goal – review and discuss them all and choose the one or two and wordsmith the one that best represents where we are want to end up.  It is not perfect yet – but better than not having one at all.

   Now you have a 10 to 30 year goal – what Jim Collins and Jim Porris call a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).

2. 3HAG (3 Year Highly Achievable Goal): Now that we have a BHAG, we now want to define and create what we call our 3HAG (3 Year Highly Achievable Goal). This is your steppingstone to reach your 10 to 30 year goal. This makes your 10 to 30 year goal more believable and doable. It allows your team to see how we're going to get there and allows the team to align to the 10 to 30 year goal. Don't wait, GUT OUT your 3HAG with your leadership team today. Simply answer these six questions:
   
   Answering these questions with your team is just the start of your journey. This discussion will be one of the best discussions you and your team will have had in a long time!! 
   
   

3. 1HAG (1 Year Highly Achievable Goal): I hope you've already had to chance to create your FY2021 plan. I want to challenge you to go back and look at that plan now with your newly formed 3HAG^TM in focus and your Jim Collins - BHAG^TM in focus. I want you to look at your current plan and the decisions that you've made for that plan with your leadership team and ensure that it lines up to where you're going. If you are not clear that your plan lines up, I recommend the following steps:
   
   

4. QHAG (90 Day Highly Achievable Goals): Now that your annual plan and your 1HAG are aligned to your 3HAG^TM and your 10 to 30 year goal – we now want you to look closely at the next 90 days and create your QHAG with your team. The QHAG is our 90-day corporate plan. In the exact same way you created your one year plan – I recommend the following steps:
   
   

5. Quarterly Individual Priorities: The last step is to look at the corporate 90 day plan and clearly understand which leaders own which quarterly prioritized corporate goals. From there we want to be clear on each of the leader’s top priorities for the next 90 days. We want to review this as a leadership team to convince ourselves that we have the resources and bandwidth to achieve the plan and make any adjustments as needed with the whole plan in view.
   
   

If we are going DRIVE your GROWTH right through 2021 and BEYOND – you need a confident plan with your long term, near term and next year in good focus, with strong confidence and with the whole team aligned. 

You need to be talking about this plan – priorities and widgets – every day, week, month, and quarter. Don’t stop at writing down the plan – let’s keep it alive through your focus so that whatever 2021 throws at us – you will be ready. 

To drive right through 2021, get your year kicked off strong by joining Metronome United coaches at CEO+LEADERSHIP BOOTCAMP.